Over the past several years, I’ve noticed some trends in my listening habits with regard to the changing of the seasons. In the spring and summer, I typically listen to more uptempo rock and electronic music, but in the fall and winter, after all the cookouts and music festivals have ended, it’s folk, alt-country and industrial-tinged electronic music.

These opposing tastes have a lot to do with my environment and how I spend my free time. In the spring and summer, I try and get out to see friends and enjoy the weather as much as possible. In the fall and winter, I ward off the cold weather by staying inside and telling myself I’m not alone by spending endless hours on the Internet.

When fall rolls around, I find myself dipping my toes back into folk and alt-country in order to find a soundtrack more conducive to solitary activities like reading and drinking alone. Offering a distinct texture and mood, these genres always fit nicely with the crisp, cool weather, the changing of the leaves, and my inevitable descent into seasonal depression.

In my playlist, I’ve included mainstays from the past few years, as well as a few songs I discovered watching skateboarding videos in high school. During the fall and winter, when it was too cold to skate, my hoodrat friends and I would always gather at each others’ homes to watch the newest skate videos and plot our adventures for the summer. In comparison, my current routine isn’t all that different, though the adventures are admittedly much less exciting.